Ewha Voice on My Literary Reading

Ewha Voice
Photo by Chung Yun-jo

As you see, my reading was covered by the Ewha Voice, the student newspaper for Ewha Womans University. Reporter Yoon Hye-joon, in "English Lounge hosts literary reading on The Bottomless Bottle of Beer" (Ewha Voice, December 1, 2013), described it as "a free literary reading [by me] with slide illustrations . . . . by Terrance Lindall, a well-known artist and illustrator." Ms. Yoon very effectively sums up the plot to The Bottomless Bottle of Beer:

The novella is based on Goethe's Faust and other various stories. The basic storyline is about a naive young man who sells his soul for a bottomless bottle of beer. However, the man misunderstands the meaning of the "bottomless bottle" of beer, and the misunderstanding leads him to sign a contract in blood with the devil.

Those other stories are Paradise Lost, The Master and Margarita, The Devil and Daniel Webster, and more. Ms. Yoon had interviewed me before the reading, inquiring about my inspiration:

Professor Hodges states that there is no special source of inspiration: He starts writing, continues to write, and once the writing is finished, he had a story. "I find that I have a story to tell, and as I am writing, ideas come," professor Hodges said. "There is always some rewriting to do, of course."

Ms. Yoon also interviewed the woman who introduced me:

"The book reading by professor Hodges was a lot of fun," professor Lee Soo-kyung (English Program Office) said. "I have read the book but hearing it live by the author and seeing the illustrations simultaneously was a different experience."

There's more at the Ewha Voice webpage, for anyone interested, and I add that I'm grateful for the publicity (and, of course, there's YouTube).